Dear Red Phone,
“I’m calling because I had a garage sale the week before last and had put up six signs indicating there would be a garage sale. I had somebody go back and they picked up four and left two on one of the poles. The following morning, I was given a $100 citation for those two garage sale signs we left out. That was not done on purpose. We’re longtime Gilroy people and I for one despise the garage sale signs that are left up. I just question the amount of the fine. $100 for a couple of signs that were left. When I went to pay that at the City of Gilroy, even the lady who took that said, ‘$100?’ She seemed to be taken aback a little. Is that the fine for leaving out a garage sale sign?”
Dear bummed about the sign fine,
According to City Clerk Shawna Freels, the City is well within its rights to impose a $100 fine for the incorrect placement of garage sale signs. While you may have gathered them up quickly after the event, it is where you put the signs that earned you the citation. Section 3.5 of Gilroy’s Municipal Code explains that “any curbstone, lamppost, pole, hitching post, hydrant, bridge or tree upon a public street or public property within the city” is a bad place to put your garage sale sign. A Gilroy Police Department multi-service officer trained to look for this particular type of violation issues the citations, confirmed Freels. People can find more information about the City’s codes at www.codepublishing.com/ca/gilroy/.
